April 8, 2007 High time for a war on irritants… EnvironmentHealth Share this post: Roger Cohen’s article, entitled “Perhaps, it’s high time for a War on Irritants,” in The Herald Tribune Mar 31-Apr 1 2007, was a great read as it was spot-on with how the little things matter. As Cohen writes, “…as we move and work more, and depend more on fallible technology, it may be that accumulated irritants are the real dirty bomblets of our harried lives.” I note that a riposte about putting too much ice in one’s drink (in the US) was also very a propos. If Europeans only add one ice cube bothers Americans, one should observe that (1) a drink that is too cold is less healthy, (2) you don’t taste the taste as easily when it is too cold, and (3) ice is cheaper than the drink you are wishing to buy so you are actually getting ripped off when you are served a bucket of ice and a drop of drink. Yendi and I have our own irritants to add to the ones in Cohen’s article: 1. Finding the dishwasher full when you go to put in the dirty dishes (thanks Adam for your contribution to our daily life) 2. The invisible line between smoking and non-smoking areas in European restaurants 3. Windows’ boot up time (compared to Apple) 4. People with voice mail boxes that are “full” and not accepting more messages 5. Complaints about the weather (and other things that cannot be changed) 6. People who park in the bus lane in front of the restaurant and block access for buses to pull up to the bus stop (this is most frequent down in front of our building here at DS) 7. MOST drivers of SUVs 8. People who just “delete all” emails without having read them (especially at work that is) 9. No “right on red” allowed in Europe 10. Keeping up with all your usernames and passwords… Anyone else have any others?? NEWSletter Subscribe to Minter’s Bi-Weekly NEWSletter and receive a free copy of the exclusive and updated 8 Golden Rules of an eReputation Your Gift For Signing Up 8 Golden Rules of an eReputation SUBSCRIBE! You have Successfully Subscribed! apple, city living, email, Environment, food, International Herald Tribune, irritants, restaurant, smoking, technology, weather Minter Dial Minter Dial is an international professional speaker, author & consultant on Leadership, Branding and Digital Strategy. After a successful international career at L’Oréal, Minter Dial returned to his entrepreneurial roots and has spent the last ten years helping senior management teams and Boards to adapt to the new exigencies of the digitally enhanced marketplace. He has worked with world-class organisations to help activate their brand strategies, and figure out how best to integrate new technologies, digital tools, devices and platforms. Above all, Minter works to catalyse a change in mindset and dial up transformation. Minter received his BA in Trilingual Literature from Yale University (1987) and gained his MBA at INSEAD, Fontainebleau (1993). His newest book Heartificial Empathy, Putting Heart into Business and Artificial Intelligence, bowed in December 2018 and won the Book Excellence Award 2019 as well as being shortlisted for the Business Book Awards 2019. It's available in Audiobook, Kindle and Paperback. He is also co-author of Futureproof (Pearson, Sep 2017) and sole author of The Last Ring Home (Myndset Press, Nov 2016), a book and documentary film, both of which have won awards and critical acclaim. Minter has a new book on leadership, You Lead, How being yourself makes you a better leader, published by Kogan Page, that released January 2021. It's easy to inquire about booking Minter Dial here. View all posts by Minter Dial Previous post Next post